


99 Red Balloons

by justahappylittletree



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: 80's Music, Crushes, F/M, Fluff, I REGRET NOTHING, One Shot, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28918068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justahappylittletree/pseuds/justahappylittletree
Summary: The year is 1987. Peter gives Charlotte a tape to listen to...That's literally it. All that follows is some introspective fluff.
Relationships: Charlotte Doppler/Peter Doppler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 7
Collections: Doppler-Tannhaus Collection





	99 Red Balloons

This morning Charlotte is at one of her favourite spots in the forest, sitting on a log and drawing one of her birds. Her birds; what a thought. She still has no idea why she keeps finding them but she may as well try to study them, since no one else will. Today's one is small and speckled like the others but she sketches it with care anyway. It's nice and quiet out here. The sky is its usual cold grey. _If I were you I'd reconsider,_ she had told Peter, _Winden is like a black hole. Once you're there you never get out._ And yet, here she is still. It really _is_ like a black hole.

Charlotte looks down at the Walkman on the log next to her. It looks brand new even if it is an older model. Its blue colour looks out of place in all the dull forest growth. The play button clicks faintly when she pushes it and the Walkman whirrs to life.

Grandpa had gifted it to her on her 12th birthday. He was just trying to keep up with whatever it was children have these days. She didn't tell him that even when he gave it to her it was already an old model, that everyone in school would laugh at it. She couldn't put down the hopeful look on his face like that.  
Charlotte thinks about how he always does that -tries to give her a normal life with everything the other kids have. Of course, she knows why that is now. He is trying to treat her like the granddaughter he never really had. The one he lost. Charlotte just happened to be the next best thing. She doesn't want to think about it. She puts on the headphones.

_"You and I in a little toy shop, buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got."_

Charlotte feels a smile almost break the calm and collected surface as the music plays. Peter gave her the tape only the other day. She had met him when school finished, it had been a coincidence really. He had just been walking by when she jogged a little to catch up and fall into step like she had been there all along. He said he was helping his father with some things around town. He had his walkman in hand as they walked. 

"Do you listen to Nena?" He had asked her. He looked nervous but eager to talk. She didn't want to disappoint him. Instead of lying and getting caught out, she shook her head.

"Not a lot." Okay, maybe that had been a lie. Charlotte didn't listen to Nena although she knew kids at school did. Most of the music she knows is from the records Grandpa keeps around the shop. Like The Supremes or maybe Heintje Simons. But here she was, pretending to know about Nena - for some reason she wanted to be able to talk to Peter.

"I don't have a lot of tapes. I listen to the radio mostly." Charlotte continued. More lies. She was trying too hard to sound cool. He would notice and call her out on her own tricks and then what would she do-

"Oh! That's cool," Peter was nodding, much to her surprise, "Here."

Then he had ejected the tape from his Walkman and held it out to her.

The sticker was red. Like a rose. If Charlotte dare let herself be so romantic and childish.

"I can't-"

"Take it! It's good. I think you'll like it." Peter smiled.

There was something different about him, Charlotte thought as she took the tape and put it in her pocket. Maybe it was because he wasn't from Winden - he still had some light inside. His smile was too bright, no one in Winden smiles with that much joy. He hasn't succumbed to the silent lifelessness around here yet. His eyes are friendly and kind, rather like the little dachshund that belongs to the Wöller family. Peter isn't like everyone else here, he's an outsider. He didn't always belong here even if he does now. Charlotte knows how that feels now. She likes that about him. 

They had walked around the town for a long time then, doing small jobs for Peter's father like collecting stamps and buying handfuls of Raider bars. It was the most fun Charlotte had had in a while. The tape had been bouncing around in her pocket the whole time. She was excited to listen to it.

Now she is sitting in the forest, sketching the little bird's head as Nena plays on through the headphones, her Walkman humming as it turns the tape.

_"This is what we've waited for, this is it, boys, this is war."_

She taps her foot a little in time with the music. Does Peter listen to this song often? Does he tap along to the synth beat too?

Charlotte hums softly as she sketches. She does feel a little silly - she doesn't normally listen to music and sing along like this. It's always distracting and she would much prefer silence to concentrate on whatever is at hand. This is different. Peter gave her this tape to listen to. Does he hum along when he listens to it? Maybe he sings too, under his breath because he is a loyal son and doesn't want to disrupt Helge. Or maybe he dances? Peter is probably a good dancer, Charlotte thinks to herself.

She hums away as the tape rolls, tapping her foot absentmindedly. Her sketch is almost done now. 

_"It's all over and I'm standing pretty, in this dust that was a city."_

Charlotte has feelings for Peter. She thinks about that now as she finishes off drawing the bird's speckled wings. She has feelings for him inside that make her cheeks go rosy. Maybe she has had them ever since the first time she met him and they shook hands at the bus stop. Or maybe only since he handed her the tape with hopeful eyes and a smile that could cut through the forest fog. Either way, she has feelings for him now. The question is what to do with them.

Thinking about it makes her feel strange, all tingly inside like she is full of party sparklers. She can feel every part of her humming with these feelings. Feelings of fond affection and caring for him. Maybe even real love. It's making her all too warm in her coat and hat. She can sense the colour rushing to her cheeks like unfolding flowers in bloom.

She has feelings for Peter. She has known for some time. And now as she listens to the tape he gave her, she thinks she will have to tell him, whether it is mutual or not - she can at least admit it to him.

_"And here is a red balloon, I think of you, and let it go."_

The song finishes. 

Maybe Peter will feel the same. The thought alone makes her mouth turn up into a smile. She can't help it. 

Winden is a black hole, she thinks, but maybe together it won't be so bad after all.

Charlotte presses rewind and starts the song from the beginning. It's a perfect loop, she thinks, of being able to listen on repeat and let her feelings sit. She feels childish but the shame doesn't last long. It is quiet out here in the forest, just her, her Walkman and the little bird. Almost peaceful.

Maybe her and Peter can listen to the tape together some day, in a perfect loop of happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this fic and the song Charlotte listens to is the wonderful  
> [99 Red Balloons](https://youtu.be/8DXDdRnq7NE) by Nena.
> 
> I know a lot of people, including the band themselves prefer the original German version, and it obviously would be more authentic so you can listen to it [here.](https://youtu.be/hIIVK0NgK38)
> 
> And fun fact, the Walkman that HG Tannhaus gives to Charlotte in this fic is a model from 1979, so despite his best efforts he is a little behind. But he is still a sweet grandpa. You can find a picture of the Walkman [here.](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Walkman-Tps-l2-Portable-Cassette-Player-W-Original-Case-Read-Description-/284115947054)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this fluffy nothingness! Stay safe out there!


End file.
